Thread by @thejournalista

Have you ever heard of the Orangeburg Massacre? You probably haven't, and with the laws that are being written in this country, it's a story that will continue to go untold.

Except, not on my watch.

damemagazine.com/2022/03/07/whi…

I got a firsthand account of what happened from Cleveland Sellers, Jr. Mr Sellers is a Black man, and the ONLY person to be convicted in an act of white terror that left 3 people dead and many more injured, including Sellers.

damemagazine.com/2022/03/07/whi…

For @damemagazine, I wrote the story Mr Sellers told me, and dug into the history of white vigilantism in this country. America was founded on it, and white terror (or vigilantism or state terror or whatever you want to call it) is still a thing.

damemagazine.com/2022/03/07/whi…

Kyle Rittenhouse is an example of white vigilantism. White people taking the law into their own hands and doing what they want to whomever they want.

damemagazine.com/2022/03/07/whi…

Dylann Roof, who killed 9 Black churchgoers who welcomed him into their Bible study, is an example of white terror. He gunned them down as they stood holding hands praying. He did it just because they were Black.

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The Ahmaud Arbery murder is an example of white terror. Three white men chased down a young Black man they accused of committing a crime. It wasn't until after his death that Georgia got rid of the law that could have led to them getting away with it.

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Emmett Till is an example of white vigilantism. A white woman lied (by her own alleged confession) about a 14-year-old Black boy whistling at her. White men showed up at his uncle's house in the middle of the night, dragged him out of bed, beat him and killed him.

“Before there was an America, the colony of Virginia passed an act in 1669 that allowed for the casual killing of slaves,” @michaelharriot.

The law he is referring to empowered anyone to kill an enslaved Black person simply for wanting to be free.

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Of course, we know that modern-day policing is at its root based on the slave patrols started in the 1700s that allowed everyday citizens to pursue, capture and return enslaved people to the masters who “owned” them.

Modern-day policing is an offshoot and a tool of white terror

It is a simple fact: White people—both men and women—feel wholly empowered to police and adjudicate the behavior of Black people as they see it.

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“When you talk about vigilantism, you are talking about extrajudicial punishment. It happened all through the early history of America. The police force is a fairly new thing in America." - @michaelharriot

"Prior to police forces, it was frontier justice, and it was up to the community where the perceived injustice took place to handle it. That is vigilante justice.” - @michaelharriot

Read this article and share it with people you know.

This history should not be erased because it makes white people uncomfortable.

White people should feel uncomfortable that it is being erased.

damemagazine.com/2022/03/07/whi…